When Jack Zhang moved from China to Melbourne, Australia when he was 15 years old, he knew that he could keep in touch with family and friends back home using modern technology. There was, however, one thing that technology couldn’t help with. “Melbourne is a food haven, but nothing beats the authenticity of China’s street food,” he fondly recalls.
Despite this culinary downside, Zhang came to call Melbourne home. In 2015, he and his friend Max Li decided to open a cafe, Tukk & Co, in the famed coffee capital of the world. But they hit a significant roadblock when they tried to buy cheap coffee cups and labels from China. Traditional payment methods through banks and companies like Western Union included exorbitant foreign exchange fees that proved a barrier for the business to grow.
Zhang, at the time a foreign exchange solution designer for NAB and ANZ banks, knew there had to be a better way. So, he and Li teamed up with Xijing Dai and Lucy Liu and the foursome went about finding it. The result was Airwallex.
Launched in December 2015, Airwallex is Australia’s fastest growing fintech unicorn and provides businesses with a ‘global wallet’. Built specifically with online sellers in mind, the company’s technology enables low-cost, high-speed and transparent international payments through the entire cross-border value chain.
“What’s happened in the past 10 years in business is the move from offline to online, and as long as you are online you are naturally a global business,” says Zhang. “We want to help businesses of all sizes, especially SMEs, scale globally.”
A BORDERLESS ECONOMY
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 2020-Ausgabe von The CEO Magazine Asia.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 2020-Ausgabe von The CEO Magazine Asia.
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